simon zadek

Braunwald is a fairyland village high in the Swiss alps above Zurich, reached only by funicular, and around which you can only move by foot, ski, horse or electric buggy. As my contribution to the Swiss economy, i can recommend this stunningly beautiful spot for those wanting to take a break, and the aptly named Bellevue as the place to go with kids (for reasons you will have to discover yourselves).

Needless to say, my sad life did not take me there for a break, but to input into the work of the UN High Level Panel on Global Sustainability, established as i have previously highlighted by the UN Secretary General, and co-Chaired by the heads of state of Finland and South Africa. It is a perfect moment, indeed some would say ‘perfect storm’, for giving a hard look at how we move forward on this agenda, given the slothful movement of the climate negotiations, the business-as-usual approach of the investment community, and the fragile political economies across the North Atlantic-zone. The question of course is whether such exercises can make a difference.

It is too easy to be cynical about such ventures, citing the low ambitions and unimplemented imperatives of earlier gatherings of the great and good. But this is wrong thinking, although i am as impatient as the next person for action at scales appropriate to the challenges we face. All of us risk falling backwards into incrementalism in our work, or getting stranded in the Valley of Death. Indeed, most of us fall foul of such risks on a regular (if not persistent) basis. The Panel provides one venue for raising our sights from the day to day action and posing the tough questions about what it would take to move the ball forward more than ‘just another 10 yards’.

A fun and productive Sunday afternoon game for those of you in the ‘business of sustainability’. Write down on a handy scrap of paper (or if you must, your mac or ipad (residual PC-users need not apply)) the ten specific actions that would be game-changers in the sustainability stakes. Don’t cheat by saying something like ‘make the investors behave’, since this is not actionable, and don’t just be vengeful (‘shove them in jail’, although according to the Huffington Post this may yet happen). Once you have sweated your way through this task, then write next to each proposal who are the actors that can make it happen, what are the barriers to getting them (the proposals, that is) off the design board, and finally how to overcome these barriers.

Then, the last task in this family game is to cross out those proposals for which you cannot fill in these latter aspects.

The Braunwald discussions highlighted just how tough it is to get to the end of this game with anything left on the page. There was rightly a considerable focus in the working group i was participating in on markets and sustainability on the capital markets, and great interest in the potential roles of new and emerging entrants, especially public financing institutions such as sovereign wealth funds and China’s policy banks. Some folks were of the view that old yet important agendas such as the problem of fossil fuel subsidies could be reinvigorated and advanced. Plugging sustainability into public procurement, which on the last count amounts to US$4-5 trillion a year (contestable public procurement) was another old chestnut that was seen as a strong contender for the ‘can do and would make a difference’ prize. And one of the most challenging options was to revisit, once and for all, the nature of the corporate fiduciary framework, accepting that narrow accountability to finance capital could never drive an adequate alignment of markets to sustainability.

This Panel could help us all by playing this game, very seriously, and help us even more by winning the game. And there is no doubt that there are folks around the table committed to doing just that.

And if you got to the end of this game and have not turned to drink or golf, then you may well be on to something…we should talk, or more properly you should speak up…

…in the meantime, don’t forget to sign up for updates on my future blogs.